State v. Currie
| Decision Date | 25 January 1974 |
| Docket Number | No. 85,85 |
| Citation | 202 S.E.2d 153,284 N.C. 562 |
| Parties | STATE of North Carolina v. Willie Albert CURRIE. |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
Atty. Gen. Robert Morgan and Associate Attorney C. Diederich Heidgerd, Raleigh, for the State.
Nance, Collier, Singleton, Kirkman & Herndon by James R. Nance, Sr., and James R. Nance, Jr., Fayetteville, for defendant appellee.
The 1971 General Assembly on 19 July 1971 enacted Chapter 954 of the Session Laws, effective 1 October 1971, entitled 'The Felony Firearms Act.' This Act is now codified as G.S. § 14--415.1 and G.S. § 14--415.2, and in pertinent part is as follows:
'Every person violating the provisions of this section shall be guilty of a felony and shall be imprisoned for not more than 10 years in the State prison or shall be fined an amount not exceeding five thousand dollars ($5,000).
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Prior to 1971 Chapter 13 of the General Statutes provided that any person convicted of a crime whereby his rights of citizenship had been forfeited was entitled to have such rights restored at any time after two years from the date of discharge by filing a petition setting forth the information required by the statute, giving three months' notice, and having a hearing before a judge of the superior court. At the hearing it was necessary for the petitioner to prove by five respectable witnesses, who had been acquainted with the petitioner for three years next preceding the filing of his petition, that his character for truth and honesty during that time had been good. The court, on being satisfied that the character of the applicant for truth and honesty was good, could then restore his lost rights of citizenship. G.S. § 13--1 to G.S. § 13--5 (repealed in 1971).
Chapter 13 of the General Statutes was repealed on 16 July 1971 by Chapter 902 of the Session Laws, and was replaced by a new Chapter 13 enacted with the purpose as stated in the caption 'to require the automatic restoration of citizenship to any person who has forfeited such citizenship due to committing a crime and has either been pardoned or completed his sentence,' upon the occurrence of one of the following conditions: '(a) the Department of Correction at the time of release recommends restoration of citizenship; (b) two years have elapsed since release by the Department of Correction, including probation or parole, during which time the individual has not been convicted of a criminal offense of any state or of the Federal Government; (c) or upon receiving an unconditional pardon.' Such person was only required to take an oath before any judge of the General Court of Justice stating that he had complied with one of the above-stated conditions, and that he would support and abide by the Constitution and laws of the United States and the Constitution and laws of North Carolina. Chapter 902 was codified as G.S. § 13--1 to G.S. § 13--3 (amended in 1973).
Chapter 251 of the 1973 Session Laws again revised and rewrote Chapter 13, substituting the present Sections 13--1 to 13--4 for Sections 13--1 to 13--3 as enacted in 1971, which now in pertinent part are as follows:
' § 13--1. Restoration of citizenship.--Any person convicted of a crime, whereby the rights of citizenship are forfeited, shall have such rights restored upon the occurrence of any of the following conditions:
(1) The unconditional discharge of an inmate by the State Department of Correction or the North Carolina Board of Juvenile Correction, of a probationer by the State Probation Commission, or of a parolee by the Board of Paroles; or of a defendant under a suspended sentence by the court.
(2) The unconditional pardon of the offender.
(3) The satisfaction by the offender of all conditions of a conditional pardon.
It is obvious that the 1971 General Assembly in enacting Chapter 902 intended to substantially relax the requirements necessary for a convicted felon to have his citizenship restored. These requirements were further relaxed in 1973. The Felony Firearms Act when enacted in 1971 provided that the Act did not apply to persons whose citizenship had been restored under Chapter 13. This, of course, referred to the new Chapter 13 as enacted in 1971, since the 1971 Chapter 13 was adopted three days prior to the enactment of the Felony Firearms Act. When the General Assembly again revised Chapter 13 in 1973, the exemption provided in the Felony Firearms Act for persons whose citizenship had been restored under Chapter 13 was left intact.
Defendant in the present case was charged with violating G.S. § 14--415.1 on 15 September 1972. The felony for which defendant had previously been convicted was the sale of marijuana. Judgment in that case was pronounced at the 7 September 1966 Session of Cumberland Superior Court, and defendant was then placed on probation for five years. His probation had to be unconditionally terminated on 7 September 1971. G.S. § 15--200. Hence, when he was charged in the present case with the felonious possession of a firearm on 15 September 1972, he was no longer on probation. The record does not disclose, however, that his citizenship was restored under Chapter 13 as rewritten in 1971. Therefore, at the time of his trial on 19 February 1973 we assume that his citizenship had not been restored pursuant to Chapter 13.
On 20 April 1973, while his appeal in the Court of Appeals was pending, Chapter 13 of the General Statutes was replaced by new provisions as provided by Chapter 251, 1973 Session Laws, the pertinent provisions of which are now codified as G.S. § 13--1 and G.S. § 13--2 (quoted above) and provide for automatic restoration of citizenship upon the unconditional discharge of a probationer.
Thus, the determinative question presented by this appeal is whether defendant is entitled to the benefit of the 1973 revision of Chapter 13 enacted after his trial but while his appeal was pending.
G.S. § 14--415.2 specifically provides that any person whose citizenship is restored under the provisions of Chapter 13 of the General Statutes, or any comparable State or federal statute, is thereafter exempted from the provisions of G.S. §...
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